Heroic Split

For a second time, I’ve had to watch my guild split in two. Heroes Inc had its parting of the ways sometime midday.

A formal breaking down into two separate guilds only publicly acknowledges what has been the actual situation for a while now.

Heroes Inc has operated two Raid Teams for most of Wrath. The Rock of Heroes Inc was ‘scored’ and a line of separation created.

Since I wasn’t in the guild at the time the two teams were formed, I’m not sure how the process went, but from what I infer, the teams were selected based on how each person wanted to do PVE, and how quickly people reached the new level cap.

One team was looking to get to the level cap and start working on Naxx post haste. Let’s call them Team One. The other team was taking a more relaxed approach. Let’s call them Team Alpha. Team One wanted to raid 3 nights a week, Team Alpha only wanted to raid two nights a week. Team One wanted to be ready to hit Ulduar the night it opened. Team Alpha wasn’t worried about it, and figured it would still be there a couple of weeks later.

I joined Team One after the Mal Katai split.

The Guild Master of Mal Katai announced they were going to disband the guild after the big split went down. Those of us left had a couple of days to find a new home.

I had been talking with my friends in Heroes, keeping them up to date on my progress in Naxx25 with Mal Katai. I, of course told them what had gone down with Mal Katai.

I was approached by the Raid Leader of Team One about joining them. I had to choose between them and Salvation (one of the 3 guilds that former Mal Katai people had joined en masse or started).

It was the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make in regards to WoW.

I’m happy to say I’m still great friends with Salvation, and talk with those guys (and gals) nearly every night I’m online.

Heroes Team One made some changes to make room for me. Their Feral Druid Tank volunteered to switch to his Mage and changed their Raid Schedule to accommodate my “Wednesdays r bad” schedule. At that point, they had already cleared Naxx. Team Alpha had not.

Now not long after I joined Heroes Inc Team One, the two teams started to get together, once or twice a month, for a 25 man Naxx run. These were great, and we had a lot of fun.

Each team would eventually clear Naxx10. The combined teams cleared Spider, Plague, Military, and Construct up to Thaddius. People were able to raid as frequently or infrequently as they wanted.

From my perspective things were going great.

Team One ran a consistent schedule. We raided the same nights every week. Team Alpha varied their schedule from week to week as some of their members had work schedules that changed week to week. Some nights both teams would be raiding. Other nights only one team would be raiding. Rarely was there a time when neither team was raiding.

It started to get difficult to run 5 mans, or run Battlegrounds or Arena with people who weren’t on your own Raid Team. My group started pugging 25 mans with friendly guilds on the server like Amber Knights and Salvation. The Guild Rock became stressed at the point where it had ‘scored’ and some tiny fractures started to form.

Then Ulduar came out. My Team hit it with a vengeance from the very first night it opened. The other team tried Ulduar. I don’t know if you remember, but Ulduar was quite difficult those first few weeks, especially the early fights of Razorscale, Ignis, and XT. Even the trash was hard. People wondered why they didn’t get badges from Flame Ravagers in Ignis’ trash.

Team Alpha concluded it wasn’t quite ready for Ulduar and decided to gear up a little more in Naxx. Those tiny fractures widen into cracks.

The combined 25 man runs ceased. We stopped PuGing 25 mans except for Vault.

As my team continued to plow into Ulduar, Achievement after Achievement would fill guild chat. While we got a couple of gratz from the other Team and our own subs, something was going on behind the scenes that I was unaware of at the time.

Apparently, some of the other Team members were beginning to get a little rankled at our success.

Since we weren’t running Naxx anymore, a couple of Team One members offered to fill in on Team Alpha’s Naxx runs if they were short people and to help gear them up. These offered were rebuffed and we were told Team Alpha didn’t want to be ‘carried’. The cracks had deepened and there was clear separation between the two halves.

I didn’t understand it, and I chalked it up to a misunderstanding.


Team Alpha was convinced our raids were run with military like precision and no fun was to be found. Nothing could have been further from the truth. We did stay on task for the most part, but all of us were having a blast.

It started to feel a bit like we weren’t just two separate Raid Teams, but two separate Guilds operating with a shared Chat channel to share Crafting Resources, a shared Guild Bank, and a shared Vent server.

Team One eventually cleared Ulduar about the time Team Alpha cleared the Antechamber.

Our Raid Leader began to discuss with us the possibility of breaking off into our own guild explaining that the situation would probably better for everyone in both Raid Groups.

I had grown really close with my Raid Team. We would often hang out in vent for hours after the raid was over just chatting.

I agreed to go wherever the Raid Team went, but I hoped the two groups and two raid leaders could work something out, and I encourage my Raid Leader to have a sit down with Team Alpha’s Raid Leader, and try to work out the differences.

Unfortunately, they both decided that a split was in the best interest of both Raid Groups.

Thus “Unusual Suspects” was born.

The news of the new guild apparently spread quickly. I almost immediately got whispers from some of my friends in Salvation. We really didn’t think, nor did we really care, if anyone noticed us. But as one of only 2 Alliance Guilds to down Yogg on either Normal or Heroic, it made more ‘news’ than we had thought it would.

Trade Chat Guy made sure to let us know that our ‘guild was newb’ and ‘we weren’t going anywhere’. We had an amused chuckle.

This split seemed much more amicable than the Mal Katai one. Not long after the guilds split, we created a chat channel to share between the guilds. I went into the chat interface and turned that channel green. It feels pretty much just like it did when we were just one guild.

Already there is discussion of running some Premade Battleground Groups. Both of my 3s partners are still in Heroes. I talked to them, and we are keeping the team intact. Sweet.

I had fully intended to make the move to Heroes my final guild move regardless of what ever happened progression wise. I had chased the Siren of Progression throughout Burning Crusade. While I don’t regret for one second the awesome friendships I made in Mal Katai, and Dominion, I didn’t want to repeat that process of Guild hopping in Wrath.

So here we go, a new adventure, a new guild, but with plenty of familiar friendly faces along for the ride.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it yet again, if I never have to make another “Guild” post for the rest of the life of this Game, I’ll be one happy camper.



(If I got any of the facts wrong, let me know.)